Everquest 2

Going to post the first review, after playing until level 9.

Boring....Boring..boring..boring...boring..boring.

I cant really give a proper review like I did for Vanguard. I simply didn't pay attention to what was going on. Afraid for the reason of the game simply not having any personal appeal I'm going to rate this;

1/10

This is a review in progress, as I am still playing my first character. Just going to write some things down as I come across them.

The Good

• Character Creation - Lots and lots of races to choose from. Each race can be completely customized, and unlike vanguard, most of the customizations can be easily seen. You can also (like vanguard) save and load customization templates.
  
• Diverse Classes - Like vanguard, lots of classes to choose from.
  
• Graphics - I've heard it as an argument against EQ2 before, but I really enjoy the graphics on this game. I think for a game with this 5+ years on it they look great.
  
• Rich Lore - Coming from EQ1, the world of EQ has some of the best lore I've seen. It is very developed, and I would enjoy countless hours just reading about different deities, forests, notable npcs, etc in the first EQ.
  
• Spell Effects - I am sampling a Wizard right now, and the starter spells are a whole lot better looking than any of Vanguards casters.
  
• Skill Points - The fact that you have to skill up things like Disruption, Ministration, SWIMMING, to be more proficient at it adds to character depth.
  
• Quests - QUESTS! Hell I'm not sure what was going on but I had a harder time than most figuring out where quests were in Vanguard, but EQ2 makes it easy as pie.
  
• Voiceovers - I mean come on, that's just icing on the cake right there. I didn't even have to read a wall of text! Not to mention, when you went to get a quest you actually interacted with the NPC in a dialogue.
  
• Spell Levels - When you first get a spell it is at like skill level "apprentice," after killing a few mobs I found a book for one of my spell's to raise it to "adept", making it nuke a ton harder. I think that it's neat you can find (and potentially trade/sell) these spell books.
  
• Character Development and Alternate Advancement - Hitting "L" and looking at this... I just love it. Similar to the AA in EQ1, but it just looks very rewarding to hit certain levels to advance your character and allocating certain AA points.
  
• Shared Banking - Pretty common in most MMOs, but I thought I'd point it out. Shared banking among your characters on your account seems like a plus to me.
  
  

The Bad

• User Interface - I'm not thrilled with the current UI, but it's not huge problem.
  
• Performance - I've played EQ2 in the past, and I always have this issue. I have to turn my client down to like "High Performance" graphic profile. I never had this issue with Windows XP on a single core machine, but on a multi-core processor with Vista I get horrible FPS if I am even sitting on balanced profile.
  

Overall Rating: 7/10 (based on my trial experience)

Eeldarb wrote:

Going to post the first review, after playing until level 9.

Boring....Boring..boring..boring...boring..boring.

I cant really give a proper review like I did for Vanguard. I simply didn't pay attention to what was going on. Afraid for the reason of the game simply not having any personal appeal I'm going to rate this;

1/10

Oooo that makes me curious! What mmorpgs have you liked in the past if any? And what games do you prefer? Seeing how similar eq2 and vg CAN be, this reply is very interesting. I'm not sure how I can easily divide these two games, but eq2 seems to have gone a bit more wowish route, with changing of content, from grouping to much solo content and fast levling.

And no I'm not having a go at you, I'm merely puzzled.

After playing an hour or so, the following:

Everquest 2 seems like fun on the paper, it has a lot of features i like.
But playing it was alot different from what i imagined.
I didnt get the feeling which says "hell yes i want to play this game" it was more like "oh a monster... ohhh dead monster...".
Somehow i cant explain it pretty well, but fighting the monsters in that game didnt feel like that much fun.
Also those Graphics remind me of good ol Morrowind, and if i want to play Morrowind ill do that.
Ofc Voice overs are nice, but ive already played so many MMORPGs im no longer interested in the quest text, its always the same thing to do with da different story around it, so why bother to hear or read it, if i can have the short version.

Well, i played EQ a little back in the day and hated it. In fact, I've had a general dislike of all things SOE touches.

So EQ2: got to lvl 5 and couldn't stand it anymore. I was having graphics issues. I can run crysis on max settings no prob, but EQ2 had me stuttering and stopping to load models every time i walked into a new area. Whenever it managed to smooth out, the controls just felt very rough as if the game came out of the oven way too early. On a few occasions i even had goblins hit me up to 5 secs after they were dead.

These may be issues that relate to just me, but if that how the game reacts to almost top of the line hardware there's no way I'm playing.

I felt that way about quests, too, at one time. Playing since eq1 release, I had grown pretty jaded altogether with MMOs, but it sounds like in the end some of you are looking for something fast paced and less RPGish and more FPSish. Now don't get me wrong, like many of you I racked in 100,000 or so HKs on wow too, but these days I feel less like I want to just have a "who clicks the fastest race" and more of an RPG experience.

I may be in the minority here, but my computer runs EQ2 almost perfectly, with most of the settings up to max. The game feels responsive, and smooth. As for everything else...

The Good

The character customization is fantastic. Lots of races to choose from, with extremely varied looks, from bible-pushing talking frogs to evil little fairies straight out of a low-budget horror film.

The classes are fairly good. Most of the archetypes feel very similar in play style, but there is just enough variety in skills and AA's to distinguish them.

The amount of content in this game is pretty astounding. At almost any time in your character's career, there are numerous large dungeons to do, between 2 and 3 zones to quest in, and an untold amount of rare creatures to hunt for more AA exp. On top of that, the crafting is fairly quick, easy to do, yet engaging. You can decorate your house, get status to level the guild up, hunt collectibles, and mentor down to help guildies and earn AA exp for yourself at the same time.

I must say, I am really a big fan of the graphics. With the shadows turned up to full, and bloom on, this game looks every bit as good as Oblivion. The animations are smooth and make sense, and the casting effects are superb.

The Bad

The game can get a little bland now and then. I think this is due to the combat being slower paced and really not as engagin as most other MMO's.

All in all, even though I only have one real problem with the game, it is a very big one. If the combat was more fun, this would be a no-brainer. As it is, it feels like you're looking a juicy steak, but don't have any way to eat it. I still think it would fit us well though, if only for the fact that it is very easy to group in this game, and rewarding for higher levels to mentor down and help lower level people out.

Crispin wrote:

Eeldarb wrote:

Going to post the first review, after playing until level 9.

Boring....Boring..boring..boring...boring..boring.

I cant really give a proper review like I did for Vanguard. I simply didn't pay attention to what was going on. Afraid for the reason of the game simply not having any personal appeal I'm going to rate this;

1/10

Oooo that makes me curious! What mmorpgs have you liked in the past if any? And what games do you prefer? Seeing how similar eq2 and vg CAN be, this reply is very interesting. I'm not sure how I can easily divide these two games, but eq2 seems to have gone a bit more wowish route, with changing of content, from grouping to much solo content and fast levling.

And no I'm not having a go at you, I'm merely puzzled.

Hey don't worry, I wont take it as a pop.

My gaming taste changes with the wind to be honest when looking at a PvE format game. I've always be stead fast with the PvP games I prefer. As for Everquest 2, I simply didn't enjoy the game at all. Nothing caught my attention in the game, nothing I haven't seen a million times in other games. Graphics where meh, UI was meh, monsters where meh (Lots of the same monsters just different colours). As I said at the start of the review "I cant really give a proper review" for everquest as it just didn't stand out at all.

When comparing EQ2 to my Vanguard experience, again there isn't allot of difference. Other than I actually felt that Vanguard deserved the pros and cons. Where as this game (In my opinion) doesn't deserve a second look.

soo what shall we try next then eel? im on, just need to know which game so i can download it
dont have a fast connection like you do !

AoC maybe? already got that one installed.

Im up for anything to be honest. Im currently having amazing amounts of fun on my Dwarf engineer on WAR

need to try that one again. last time my computer couldn't handle it, but ive made upgrades since then (i5 and HD5850 )

geez eel!!! why didnt you tell me youre playin WAR right now -.-" server and char name gogogo im in

Vernis wrote:

geez eel!!! why didnt you tell me youre playin WAR right now -.-" server and char name gogogo im in

Badlands and Eeldarb Get on vent you lot lol